CISA/CISM Time!

Best wishes to those taking the exams tomorrow. I will be traveling for a week right after, but if you sit the exam, please put your thoughts/comments here. Hopefully we can all say 'I PASSED!' in here as well.

Find more posts tagged with

Comments

colemic

BTW I am taking the CISA...

JDMurray

Good luck wit the exam! Please post a review of your experience.

cabrillo24

Best of luck. I took the CISA exam in December of last year, will be taking the CISM tomorrow.

colemic

OK, I can honestly say that the ISACA practice exam engine was a HUGE help. If I had just relied on the CISA AIO, or Kim Graves' book, I would have totally been sunk. Didn't see a lot of value in the ISACA review book, but then I focused more on the practice tests.

I flew to Dallas the day before the test, to give me time to review and find the test site. It was located at UT Dallas, and I was VERY glad I drove to it the day before, to be sure of the route and to time it. (GPS was pretty useless and only took me to the front of the campus.) Went ahead and got a parking pass too for the next day, I didn't want to have to waste a lot of time the next morning if I didn't have to, trying to get a parking pass. (Turns out, didn't even matter, but better safe than sorry.)

Saturday morning, I got up, got there early, and all went pretty smoothly. The ISACA test questions were exactly LIKE the real exam questions. Again, if I had relied on other books' test questions, I would have totally been screwed, no doubt. I really struggled with the test engine questions but it really seemed to click into place the last week, I was getting low to mid - 80s on the simulated exams (200 questions, 4 hours.) I marked through all the answers I knew were incorrect, and narrowed it down from there. I just circled the correct answer in the test booklet, then went to the next one, and once I got all the way through, I went back and re-read the question (in case I had picked up a nugget that made me rethink an answer) and then once satisfied, go through and mark up the scantron.

At the risk of having to eat a lot of crow here - and I will, if necessary - I felt that I did OK on the test. Guess we'll see...

cabrillo24

colemic wrote: »

OK, I can honestly say that the ISACA practice exam engine was a HUGE help. If I had just relied on the CISA AIO, or Kim Graves' book, I would have totally been sunk. Didn't see a lot of value in the ISACA review book, but then I focused more on the practice tests.

I flew to Dallas the day before the test, to give me time to review and find the test site. It was located at UT Dallas, and I was VERY glad I drove to it the day before, to be sure of the route and to time it. (GPS was pretty useless and only took me to the front of the campus.) Went ahead and got a parking pass too for the next day, I didn't want to have to waste a lot of time the next morning if I didn't have to, trying to get a parking pass. (Turns out, didn't even matter, but better safe than sorry.)

Saturday morning, I got up, got there early, and all went pretty smoothly. The ISACA test questions were exactly LIKE the real exam questions. Again, if I had relied on other books' test questions, I would have totally been screwed, no doubt. I really struggled with the test engine questions but it really seemed to click into place the last week, I was getting low to mid - 80s on the simulated exams (200 questions, 4 hours.) I marked through all the answers I knew were incorrect, and narrowed it down from there. I just circled the correct answer in the test booklet, then went to the next one, and once I got all the way through, I went back and re-read the question (in case I had picked up a nugget that made me rethink an answer) and then once satisfied, go through and mark up the scantron.

At the risk of having to eat a lot of crow here - and I will, if necessary - I felt that I did OK on the test. Guess we'll see...

I would say about a handful of questions are word for word for what you'd see in the practice exams, but I think what makes the practice exams so vaulable is that you see so many variations of questions related to certain tasks/objectives of the tests that when you do see a question you feel like you've already reviewed something similar. I think the combination of your studies combined with the practice exam attested to that "a hah!" feeling you experienced taking the test vice the practice exams being exactly what you saw on the test.

You should look into the CISM, a lot of overlapping material, especially while its still fresh in your head.

colemic

6 months isn't exactly fresh!

You are right, I only had 2 or 3 that were exactly the same as the practice test questions. I am starting my MSIA from WGU July 1, so I haven't decided about the CISM yet. Knowing I am a sucker for punishment I will probably go for it (provided that I actually pass the CISA.)

Also - work experience helped a lot, there were a lot of questions regarding financial institutions. For example, I know what a master file is, because when I conduct audits, it is one area we look at closely (the controls, to ensure sufficient separation of duties, oversight, etc.) Many questions would have been difficult without that background.

Only question I was SURE was a research question had to do with general ledgers. I know nothing of (financial) accounting practices or principles.

sujithadr

Hi All,

I am planing to do CISA. I have 4 years banking experience as Credit officer (after MBA).

Please tell me whether CISA is good for me..??

Please guide me is it good to take CISA & Can I expect good career in IT?

Thanks in Advance

cabrillo24

sujithadr wrote: »

Hi All,

I am planing to do CISA. I have 4 years banking experience as Credit officer (after MBA).

Please tell me whether CISA is good for me..??

Please guide me is it good to take CISA & Can I expect good career in IT?

Thanks in Advance

Negative. The CISA is not an entry level examination, and also requires that you have a certain numbers of years worth of experience in the field of auditing.

Sam2011

Good luck everyone who took CISA or CISM exams on June 2011 and I believe that the we will got our result on 28th of July same the period of last exam..

I am wondering if anyone have an idea about How are the marks calculated because I thought the passed mark 450 equal to 56% which mean about 111 questions but friend of mine said that as 200 the lowest mark even if you answer nothing and 800 the highest possible score that means the exam will be calculated from 600 and as the passed mark is 450 which is 75% and 75% is the passed mark of the last marks scheme for CISA exam, I think that is reasonable!
and also that might mean you need to answer 150 out of 200 questions.

Do you think that make sense !!

colemic

A portion of the 200 questions are not calculated into the final score, they are sample/research questions, so I think your math is off.

Sam2011

colemic wrote: »

A portion of the 200 questions are not calculated into the final score, they are sample/research questions, so I think your math is off.

My friend colemic, I hope so ...

colemic

I may be wrong about the sample/research questions, but I know that is true for CISSP.

I have been thinking about this waiting on the scores to be released and I found a comment on a blog dated June 17, 2011 that appears to have been written by an ISACA employee (or at least their perspective.)

from IT Audit and information security: CISA Exam Scaled Score System

Ari said...
ISACA will provide CISA, CISM, CGEIT and CRISC exam scores according to a scale from 200-800, with the passing score set at 450. A scaled score is a method of reporting exam performance relative to other candidates taking the same exam. Reporting a score on a scale is a common practice.

The whole process begins with the establishment of a passing score on an exam. The passing score for the exam is set at the beginning of each new job practice. The score is determined by the Certification Committee through a process called a “cut score.” This “cut score” process establishes a passing point for the exam based on the review and input of numerous certified professionals from throughout the world who participate in several exercises and simulations. This pass point is not a percentage of correct answers. It is established as the minimum number of questions that this group determined must be answered correctly by a candidate in order to demonstrate practical application of the job task and knowledge statements.

Once established, this passing score is placed on a scale. In the case of the CISA, CISM, CGEIT and CRISC exams this passing score is established as a 450 scaled score. For illustrative purposes let’s say that this passing score was answering 140 questions correct out of 200 questions on the exam. In this case a raw score of 140 would represent a scaled score of 450. Raw scores that are less than 140 would receive scaled scores less than 450 and raw scores above 140 would receive higher scores than 450.

Regardless of the scale used for scoring, the same raw scores have the same results. No more, or fewer, candidates pass or fail the exam under any scale used.

Additionally, we provide the breakdown by job practice areas of your score. This is for informational purposes only and cannot be averaged to obtain your final score.

I hope that this has helped to explain what a scaled score is and how it will be reported on ISACA exams.

...so the way I read that, failing one section can mean you fail the test, if you do not get the minimum number of questions right per section... and also means that the different job practices are weighted differently since they have can each have a differing minimum questions answered correctly.

Or does someone else interpret that differently?

darkladdie

I think I saw answer to this question on another Internet forum somewhere.
But to summarize it is possible to pass if you failed a section. But as you have mentioned, each domain does not have the same weight in determining your score.
In the case I remember, the person failed a domain that was less weighted with a score below 400 but he had a score of 750 in the domain with the highest weight and had scores between 500 and 550 in the other domains.
His final score was just over 500. Also this was back when the CISA had seven domains.

So unless ISACA changed their policy with new exams this year I believe this still to be valid today. But it will be alot harder to pass the CISA that way now that there are only 5 domains.

tridibur

I would like to know how much time i get for each section for the CISA exam, in other words,
What is the real-time I would be given that day for the CISA exam for each of the domains:

1) Process of Auditing

2) Govt and mgmt of IT

3) IS acquisition and development

4) IS operations and Maintenance

5) Protection of information of Assets

Thanks

CISPhD

tridibur wrote: »

I would like to know how much time i get for each section for the CISA exam, in other words,
What is the real-time I would be given that day for the CISA exam for each of the domains:

1) Process of Auditing

2) Govt and mgmt of IT

3) IS acquisition and development

4) IS operations and Maintenance

5) Protection of information of Assets

Thanks

You wont have any specific amount of time for each section. The questions for the exam are mixed together from each domain. You'll have a total of four hours to answer all 200 questions. Refer to the link below for some other commonly asked questions.

CISA Frequently Asked Questions